And she said she hoped O'Reilly would be kept behind bars amid reports that he may attempt a fresh appeal against his conviction.

It is believed the appeal would be based on claims that the book of evidence was left in the jury room during the trial.

Rachel's mother Rose Callaly said in a rare TV interview that she had "not got one doubt in the world" that O'Reilly was guilty.

"The developments are just him trying to justify as he said 'his own innocence'.

"Thank God we got justice and please God we will continue to get justice, because it means such a lot. I don't know what I would do had we not got justice for Rachel's death."

The murder of the Dublin mother of two shocked the nation when her battered body was discovered by her husband in The Naul in Dublin in October 2004.

It was initially thought Mrs O'Reilly had died in a bungled robbery but three years later her husband was convicted of murdering his wife.

Mrs Callaly said she still had a tape of the infamous 'Late Late Show' interview with herself and O'Reilly where his bizarre behaviour raised suspicions about his involvement in the crime.

Mrs Callaly said her son-in-law's vivid "blow by blow" re-enactment of the killing to her stunned family the day after the funeral left her convinced he had murdered her daughter.

But she said her husband Jim still was not able to contemplate the horror of his son-in-law being the murderer at that time.

She said: "Jim at that stage wasn't convinced and he used to get very upset when I tried to talk it out with him and I just remember saying to him one day 'I won't say it anymore'.

Battered

"But I told him he would have to start opening his mind to it because I thought Joe had done it."

Speaking about the moment she and O'Reilly discovered the body, she said: "When he (Joe) saw Rachel, I was waiting on him to lift her and get very, very upset and that was one thing he didn't do. His first words were 'Jesus, Rachel, what did you do?' It was the first real sign that something was very wrong.

"If you love someone and she was very obviously after being murdered and battered to death . . . he should have been (holding her) but there was absolutely none of that whatsoever," she told Ireland AM.